The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
The management and control of fluids through channels of distribution networks, to include plumbing systems of buildings, is a need found ubiquitously among many domestic, commercial, industrial and civil installations. In addition, the detection of both fluid flow within plumbing systems and leaks therefrom is vital to most effectively managing the use, conservation, and cost of provision and delivery of many natural and chemical resources, including and not limited to water, beverages, petrochemicals and other natural and synthetic fluids.
Of particular note, the scope of the method of the present invention includes the fields of water management and leak detection. With ever increasing populations and limited water resources, water conservation has become a major issue. The State of California's current Governor Jerry Brown recently announced his state's first-ever mandatory water restrictions in an effort to cope with four years of the worst drought in the state's history. These restrictions, under which cities and towns in the state were told to cut water use by 25 percent, could be the first step in what many researchers and analysts say is a fundamental change in the way California uses it's diminishing water supplies. Recently, National Geographic and other media outlets have reported extensively on the drought in California and on emerging water scarcity across the western United States, and have shown how a warming climate and the lack of snow in the Cascades and Sierra Nev. Mountain ranges have dramatically reduced snowmelt, a crucial provider of water to California and the agricultural belt in its Central Valley. Calif., for the first time, passed legislation regulating groundwater use. Some of these restrictions have already taken effect, and more will be implemented in the coming years at both the state and local levels.
California has faced major droughts before, such as in the late 1970s. However, fewer than 20 million people lived in the state then, whereas nearly 40 million live in the state now. While Californians have drastically improved the efficiency of their water use in recent years, more must be done to bring the usage to sustainable levels. If rain and snow do not arrive in normal amounts, the supply of groundwater, much of which is nonrenewable, will continue to decline as it is used to make up for surface shortages.
Most homes do not have an easy and reliable way to measure water consumption. Typically, a homeowner will learn of his or her total consumption only when the amount is reported on a monthly water bill. Homeowners that are particularly dedicated to conservation can check their municipal water meters more frequently, but this is a manual process resulting in low-resolution data, and therefore does a poor job of showing how water usage changes based on activity throughout the day. Because homeowners typically do not have access to real-time water use data, they cannot easily know if and when appliances or faucets use disproportionate amounts of water. Additionally, long-running leaks tend to go unnoticed, resulting in large water bills and damage to structures. Real-time water meters, such as the present invention, can be a boon to residential water conservation by identifying leaks and other wasteful uses of water. This can save homeowners money off of their water bills, and it can prevent many thousands of dollars of damages from leaks. There are several consumer water meters currently either in the market or in development, but they all have critical flaws which the present invention lacks. The first type of meter is one that is installed directly inline near the primary water main, and uses either a positive displacement or multi-jet mechanism which will spin in proportion to the water's flow rate. These meters use proven and reliable technology, but they can only be installed by removing a section of pipe and are thus not suitable for installation without a professional plumber. Other schemes involve placing meters nearer the individual outlets in a home. These are more easily installed, but they quickly become expensive as the number of outlets increases, they can be difficult to maintain, and they cannot detect leaks that happen between the water main and the water outlets. Other meters can measure water flow without cutting a pipe via ultrasonic transit time analysis or acoustic analysis of the flow itself, but these tend to be very expensive, difficult to calibrate, or both. In contrast, the present invention is designed to be simple to install, to require little calibration, and to be affordable for homeowners.
Yet the prior art fails to optimally provide methods and systems to detect and/measure fluid flow and optionally provide leak detection.
There is therefore a long-felt need for methods and devices for detecting and/or measuring fluid flow, including but not limited to water flow, within channels of plumbing systems, and that preferably can be easily or manually installed into prior art plumbing systems.